president obama and congress begin negotiations this week to avoid the coming fiscal cliff. about $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that will kick in at year-end. both sides say they're looking for ways to compromise. >> that's what representative government should be about. no one gets all they want. if reagan and o'neill could do it, boehner and obama should be able to do it. >> reporter: but republicans have consistently voted against any deal that raises tax revenue. >> the key here is whether or not the republicans will move away from the ideologically rigid position which has been the grover/norquist pledge which most of them signed that they will not go for additional revenues. >> reporter: for the first time, even the anti-tax pledge appears to be negotiable. several republicans are indicating they're open to breaking that promise. >> when you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming greece and republicans should put revenue on the table. >> reporter: but new revenue doesn't necessarily mean n